For certain types of people, especially those with a knack for acting, pretending to have amnesia can be a fun way to mess with your friends a bit, and have a few laughs. Maybe you enjoy doing the unexpected and seeing how people react, or maybe you just would like a good acting challenge. Whatever the motivation, it's certainly possible to fake amnesia, at least for short periods of time.

Steps

Part 1

Learning About Amnesia

1

Decide what type of amnesia you want to pretend to have. The type of amnesia you choose to imitate will greatly influence the specifics of how you go about the pretending. Would you like to pretend you have short term amnesia, where you can remember the president, the year, etc; but cannot remember what you ate for breakfast or what was on television an hour ago (Anterograde Amnesia)? Or would you like to pretend that everything about your life has been forgotten after a certain point in life (Retrograde Amnesia)?

2

Do your research on the symptoms of your chosen type of amnesia. Know that though amnesia is rare, there's been plenty of research on it. That means there's plenty to read about its symptoms and causes, and therefore, to fake them. There are two main types of amnesia:

Anterograde Amnesia — You can remember past events from before the trauma (which is usually a physical head-trauma), but you can no longer turn short-term memories into long-term ones. New information slips from your mind.

Retrograde Amnesia — You can't remember personal details about your past between a certain point in your life and the event that caused the amnesia. For example, you still remember basic information and facts about the world like how to use a fork, but you don't remember who your friends are or when you moved to the city you live in.

3

Figure out your 'how did I get amnesia' story. Some types of amnesia you will not remember how you got it, others you may have some clue. Most treatment of amnesia starts with psychiatric treatment in order to determine the cause of amnesia (if it's from something other than a severe blow to the head).[1]

The potential causes of amnesia causes are broken into two categories. Organic, like a blow to the head, drug use, or a disease, and functional, like mental disorders or a traumatic event. Dissociative amnesia has functional causes, and retrograde and anterograde amnesia usually have organic causes.

Some afflictions that can cause amnesia include: strokes, brain inflammation due to cancer or herpes simplex virus, lack of oxygen to the brain due to heart attack or respiratory distress, thiamin deficiency due to long-term alcohol abuse, and tumors in the memory parts of the brain. [2]

Part 2

Faking Amnesia Convincingly

1

Avoid exaggerating short-term memory loss. One of the most common mistakes people make when faking amnesia is making the apparent memory loss too extreme. People suffering from anterograde amnesia may have difficulty converting short-term memories into long-term ones, but that doesn't mean they can't remember anything even seconds after it happened.[3]

This is why one common psychologists use to rule out fake amnesia is to show the patient a series of pictures with shapes and letters on them, and then have them recreate what they saw on paper. The only way to fail at this task is to purposely mess up. People with real short-term memory loss can still remember simple things for a short period of time. They just forget them not long after.

What this means for you is that you need to be careful not to exaggerate the memory failure. Pretend you don't remember that conversation you had with your roommate later that day, not just seconds after.

2

Avoid exaggerating long-term memory loss. One of the keys to faking convincing amnesia and make it believable is to not go overboard with it. Retrograde amnesia affects the ability to recall personal details about your life, not general facts about the way the world works. If you're faking retrograde amnesia, you might pretend you don't know what school you go to or how to navigate your house, but don't pretend you've forgotten what a computer or toaster is.

Another reason it's a bad idea to make your retrograde amnesia too extreme is that it makes it harder to keep up with. Think about how difficult it will be just to get through the day if you have to keep up pretending like you don't know how to use a fork or drive a car.

3

Start pretending. Pick a type of amnesia, a fictional cause of that amnesia, a day to start, and stick to it. If you've chosen a head injury as the cause of your amnesia, one of the easiest to fake, then perhaps you can come home one day with bandages around your head and a story about how your fell down a case of concrete stairs. Then it's just a matter of convincingly pretending to forget either the fake traumatic event, your personal history, or events that happen in the short-term.

4

Don't let your pretend amnesia cause serious repercussions. Amnesia is a serious condition that will cause concern in those close to you. A trip to the doctor will end up costing you money, so it may be wise not to let the joke go that far. You also don't want to lose your job over something pretend, so don't let the pretending interfere with your ability to go to work and do your job.

5

End the pretending. Most types of amnesia are reversible, and often temporary. This means if you want, you can end your fake amnesia period in two ways, by giving up the ruse and letting everyone know you've been fooling them, or pretending that your amnesia woe and all your memories came flooding back.[4]

6

Have fun with it. Pretending for too long without telling anyone will lead to anger or serious worry. Make sure it's only in jest, and it's done for short periods of time. The last thing you want is to let a practical joke put serious stress on the relationships in your life, so be careful not to overdo it.

Part 3

Improving Your Pretend Amnesia

1

Let a friend in on it. Getting help from a friend with your pretend amnesia prank might improve your believability. Tell a friend what you're doing and hopefully they'll be amused by the idea and want to help you. That way they can show up at the house with you and say they just took you to the hospital. They can explain how you've been diagnosed with amnesia and what kind of things you can't remember. Having someone else in on the prank will make it that much more believable.

2

Read about some of the famous amnesia cases. Researching the common symptoms of amnesia will help you with the basics, but if you want to really get down the behavior of someone with amnesia, nothing will help more than pulling from real amnesia cases. Some of those cases include:

Ansel Bourne, who was the real-life inspiration for the Jason Bourne movies. He lost the memory of two months of his life, with no idea what he had done during that time.

Raymond Robins, who lost all memory of his identity due to stress and emotional strain.[5]

3

Plan ahead of time. Pretending to have amnesia convincingly isn't an easy task, and is best done with some planning beforehand. Before you start pretending, you should ask yourself several questions, such as:

How did you get the amnesia, and how will you convey this? If it's a blow to the head, people are going to want to see a bump on your head. If it's due to a disease, you need to choose a disease you would be likely to get, and be able to fake several of the symptoms. If it's due to emotional trauma, you need a good backstory for that trauma.

How severe will your memory loss be? You need to think about what things you will pretend to not remember before you start pretending. If you pretend to forget who your roommates are then slip up and use one of their names before they tell you, the jig is up. Making a secret journal where you keep track of what you do and don't remember could be helpful for this.

When will I get my memory back? It may be helpful to plan out in advance how long you will keep this going, and how you will get out of it. If you want to pretend that you've regained your memories, maybe you'll want to think of a trigger that jogged them back, especially if your fake amnesia is due to a traumatic event. Also, remember that amnesia due to a blow to the head is usually temporary and those memories return eventually.

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